Dr. Natalia Linos is a social epidemiologist and Policy Specialist, Determinants of Health and UHC at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She was the Executive Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard from September 2019 until April 2024. She has over 15 years of experience working at the global and local levels on some of the most pressing public health challenges of our time: from climate change to systemic racism.
During her time as the FXB Center’s Executive Director, she helped build a new research area for the Center focused on racial justice. Along with Dr. Bassett, she co-led the two largest programs in this area, namely to create an actionable field of scholarship on structural racism and health and to make the public health case for reparations. These efforts built on their work together, including at the New York City Health Department and research on the social, legal and political determinants of health.
Prior to her role at Harvard, Natalia worked at the United Nations for over a decade in diverse roles. From 2016 to 2019, she led UNDP’s work at the nexus of health, climate change and the environment. She used that knowledge and experience to expand the FXB Center’s work and partnerships on environmental justice and climate action for health equity. From 2007 to 2014, she served as a policy specialist in Beirut, Lebanon, and later as an adviser and speech writer to former UNDP Administrator and Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, while also completing her doctoral studies.
Natalia has a strong commitment to public service and bringing public health expertise into political decision-making. In 2020 and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalia ran for Congress to represent Massachusetts’ fourth Congressional district. She served as a Town Meeting and School Committee Member in Brookline and on the town’s Advisory Council on Public Health. She also served on the Board of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.
Natalia is a three-time Harvard University graduate, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, Master of Science in Social Epidemiology, and Doctor of Science in Social Epidemiology here. She also holds a Certificate in Forced Migration from Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre. She speaks Greek fluently and has basic conversational skills in Arabic, Spanish and French. Natalia has three young children.